*Edit: I've seen a lot of moms say that the schools should provide certain
things...obviously the schools are funded by taxes, so to provide these
things, they would need to pull in more taxpayer dollars. As taxpayers,
would you be okay with a tax increase to purchase these things? What is
the difference between paying for them through tax dollars and
purchasing them for your child's class specifically, in your opinion?*

Someone posted something on mom confessions yelling at moms complaining about school supplies. Apparently the hot topic is whether it's reasonable for schools to do the whole communal supplies thing. As in: everyone gets a supply list with say 12 pencils, 2 boxes of tissues, a couple erasers, a pair of scissors, etc. and they are all kept by the teacher for everyone to use. Like, the teacher takes all the pencils and then doles them out as necessary, there's one box of tissues for the whole class, etc.

So apparently a lot of parents are livid over this.

The reasons for this seem to vary:

-some felt like they shouldn't have to buy supplies for the whole class (the supply lists I got seemed on par with what we had when i was a kid and seemed like they were in line with what one child needed) Have supply lists gotten bigger? has anyone noticed this? I mean, sure they use the supplies for the whole class, but I dont' think I bought more than I would've if I had just bought for me.

-some felt that kids won't learn responsibility because a new pencil will appear if they lose one. I have my doubts. I don't think that's any kind of education--not being able to do your homework if you run out of pencils. And it would be the same kids from poor families who don't have pencils every week. Also, I have a feeling a lot of kids would "lose" pencils if it meant they got to go without doing their homework! Do you think this is a valid complaint?

-Some felt that they would buy crayola and other parents would buy roseart. lol, this just seems silly. like generic crayons are gonna kill em. But, whatcha think? (my kid's classroom just dumped all the crayons in bins on each table, so it's irrelevant who brought generic, but yeah.)

-A lot of people felt that the school should cover these items. I'm not sure if people realized that this meant higher taxes and that your tax dollars would go to other people's school supplies. Do you think a tax increase would be reasonable to cover school supplies?

Anyway, I'd love to hear everyone's feelings on this. Also, did anyone have issues with school shopping? As much as I hate Walmart, they make it really easy at the Walmart in my town. They have all the supply lists for all the local schools handy and have everything on all the lists in stock and right in one little area. Need a weird brand of pencil? They make sure to stock it. A lot of people complained about this.

Replies

Yeah, when you pay for it out of your wallet, you definitely notice the waste!

Off topic: my 2 year old has learned to throw things away. She throws away her apple cores, her paper towels, things I ask her to throw away. She is super excited about this new skill she's learned. She gets super excited when she sees trash at the park. Mommy look! Something I get to throw away! lol

Unfortunately she gets a little overzealous about it and doesn't always understand what things you throw away and what things you don't throw away. When sippy cups are empty, they go in the trash (you throw away the apple core, why not the sippy cup?). When she's does eating, the plate goes in the trash. I have to keep a close eye on the trash to make sure she isn't throwing all my belongings away! lol

My mom lost a pair of expensive earrings and we're thinking she tossed them in the waste basket. I mean, really what was she expecting leaving expensive jewelry out when there's a toddler around! But yeah, it's a learning curve :-)

The school here has done it the same way every year since it opened. It supplies everything but paper, pencils, and pens. Once in awhile you get a teacher that requests other things like my dons teacher requested, 1 glue stick , 1 box of crayons, and 1 dry erase marker but it not very often. Kids at this school have never had to share. There have never been any problems either.

Some felt that they would buy
crayola and other parents would buy roseart. lol, this just seems silly.
like generic crayons are gonna kill em. But, whatcha think?

That is lame if they are so worried they can buy cheap too

For what it's worth I think your list is very reasonable, though a lot of stuff I would buy would not work for every kid. My 2nd grader is left handed and I buy things made for a left handed child to make his work easier. If I were given a list I would explain this to the teacher so s/he would be aware.

The list for 1st-2nd graders is fairly short and reasonable I thought, I had no complaints about it whatsoever. Even looking at other grades it's not that bad. This is what I had to get:

1 box - Baggies (gallon for boys--girls had to have quart size--can someone explain why they do that? Just curious)

2 boxes - crayons (24 count)

2 - Dry erase markers (4 pack)

1 bottle of glue

6 glue sticks

2 large boxes of tissues (I bought a 3 pack)

1 box of markers - classic colors - 8 pack (they didn't say whether they should be the skinny or the fat so I got one of each)

1 pair blunt tip scissors

48 #2 pencils

4 pocket folders with brads.

2 spiral notebooks wide ruled/1 subject

1 pencil box

2 pink erasers

3rd-5th grade have basically the same thing, just a couple of changes and a couple of additions. Middle school and high school are very reasonable as well. And for everything, brand name, color, size, etc are left up to the parents discretion.

I did see a Facebook friend complain, but it was mostly because her kids' school had lengthy lists and they had to be brand names and I think she's overwhelmed at having to add to the costs of her autistic child's therapy.

Sometimes I can understand why parents gripe. I look at your list and I see "earbud headphones" and I have to wonder why. But, it's not as bad as I've heard in some situations.

We had the same thing with the baggies. It was broken down into girls with last names A-M had to get these certain baggies, last namesN-Z had to get a different size, etc. I don't know specifically what they do with them, but it doesn't matter a great deal. I would imagine they want a variety of sizes.

They use the earbuds for computer time. I guess they aren't super strict if you only have regular headphones because a couple kids have those, but they prefer them because of the small space they take up. Easier to store.

I live in a wealthier area, so they can ask for more stuff. It doesn't bother me a great deal. We can afford it, so these things aren't a struggle for us.

Quoting thatgirl70:

The list for 1st-2nd graders is fairly short and reasonable I thought, I had no complaints about it whatsoever. Even looking at other grades it's not that bad. This is what I had to get:

1 box - Baggies (gallon for boys--girls had to have quart size--can someone explain why they do that? Just curious)

2 boxes - crayons (24 count)

2 - Dry erase markers (4 pack)

1 bottle of glue

6 glue sticks

2 large boxes of tissues (I bought a 3 pack)

1 box of markers - classic colors - 8 pack (they didn't say whether they should be the skinny or the fat so I got one of each)

1 pair blunt tip scissors

48 #2 pencils

4 pocket folders with brads.

2 spiral notebooks wide ruled/1 subject

1 pencil box

2 pink erasers

3rd-5th grade have basically the same thing, just a couple of changes and a couple of additions. Middle school and high school are very reasonable as well. And for everything, brand name, color, size, etc are left up to the parents discretion.

I did see a Facebook friend complain, but it was mostly because her kids' school had lengthy lists and they had to be brand names and I think she's overwhelmed at having to add to the costs of her autistic child's therapy.

Sometimes I can understand why parents gripe. I look at your list and I see "earbud headphones" and I have to wonder why. But, it's not as bad as I've heard in some situations.

I wonder if they combine them then, but just split who buys them between boys and girls (but if the ratio is off, that's going to be very uneven, LOL).

Understood about the ear plugs. My son's school, each classroom has sets of the regular headphones (I think through Scholastic). You remember those I'm sure, the big clunky ones from our old school days, LOL.

We don't live in a weathly neighborhood (wish we did, LOL), but hopefully we'll be able to move into a better one in the next 2-3 years. We don't really have any complaints about the list either, but like I said, ours is pretty reasonable anyway.

Quoting Indiemom880:

We had the same thing with the baggies. It was broken down into girls with last names A-M had to get these certain baggies, last namesN-Z had to get a different size, etc. I don't know specifically what they do with them, but it doesn't matter a great deal. I would imagine they want a variety of sizes.

They use the earbuds for computer time. I guess they aren't super strict if you only have regular headphones because a couple kids have those, but they prefer them because of the small space they take up. Easier to store.

I live in a wealthier area, so they can ask for more stuff. It doesn't bother me a great deal. We can afford it, so these things aren't a struggle for us.

Quoting thatgirl70:

The list for 1st-2nd graders is fairly short and reasonable I thought, I had no complaints about it whatsoever. Even looking at other grades it's not that bad. This is what I had to get:

1 box - Baggies (gallon for boys--girls had to have quart size--can someone explain why they do that? Just curious)

2 boxes - crayons (24 count)

2 - Dry erase markers (4 pack)

1 bottle of glue

6 glue sticks

2 large boxes of tissues (I bought a 3 pack)

1 box of markers - classic colors - 8 pack (they didn't say whether they should be the skinny or the fat so I got one of each)

1 pair blunt tip scissors

48 #2 pencils

4 pocket folders with brads.

2 spiral notebooks wide ruled/1 subject

1 pencil box

2 pink erasers

3rd-5th grade have basically the same thing, just a couple of changes and a couple of additions. Middle school and high school are very reasonable as well. And for everything, brand name, color, size, etc are left up to the parents discretion.

I did see a Facebook friend complain, but it was mostly because her kids' school had lengthy lists and they had to be brand names and I think she's overwhelmed at having to add to the costs of her autistic child's therapy.

Sometimes I can understand why parents gripe. I look at your list and I see "earbud headphones" and I have to wonder why. But, it's not as bad as I've heard in some situations.

Lol, you must be younger than me! Computers weren't really a "thing" until much later. I remember being in second grade and we played some very simple computer game on it like once a month! We had one computer in the classroom for the whole class. And computers in the early 80's didn't do much!

Even in Jr high I don't think we did much with computers. We had a computer lab and we learned some very basic things on them. And then in high school, the internet was around but it still wasn't this huge big thing. We did research for school papers and typed them up on computers, but I can't ever remember using headphones at school.

Amazing how fast things change!

Quote:

Understood about the ear plugs. My son's school, each classroom has sets of the regular headphones (I think through Scholastic). You remember those I'm sure, the big clunky ones from our old school days, LOL.